YouTube Partners With Creative Agencies to Pitch Its 6-Second Ad Format at Sundance

BBDO and Droga5 are among those participating

YouTube wants brands to understand the value of short-form storytelling in a mobile world. That's why the company has created an activation to showcase its six-second ad format at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Kicking off today, attendees will be able to see 10 six-second films—five from up-and-coming filmmakers and five from creative agencies—at the YouTube House until Jan. 24.

YouTube will also have a special gallery opening on Jan. 21 from 4-7 p.m., where the company's "agency and brand partners can get a special hands-on experience, meet the filmmakers, and hear directly from YouTube's global marketing director, Lucinda Barlow," explained Tara Walpert Levy, vp of agency sales for YouTube.

"A cross-screen world offers brands new ways to connect with people across every moment of their day," said Levy. "To do so effectively, however, brands must engage in non-traditional ways of storytelling to match the non-traditional consumer behavior."

She continued: "People are willing—and sometimes eager—to choose to engage with longer-form content but brands also need to be able to weave in effective shorter-form messages to guarantee exposure alongside a positive brand experience."

For YouTube, the Sundance activation is a way to get brands to see "different examples of powerful six-second films, [so that] brands and agencies will be inspired, and gain a few nuggets of ideas to build from, to evolve their storytelling for a mobile world as they head into the New Year," said Levy.